Governor Schwarzenegger vetoes familiesBy Kristin Maschka
Governor Schwarzenegger, as your boss, we'll be glad to let you use a day of leave to take care of your kids. As long as you make sure the rest of us can do the same.

Women, work and fair taxesBy Jean Kazez
Stepping back into the shoes of single me, it's hard for me to work up a whole lot of sympathy for the woman with the too rich husband.

Walkin’ in New OrleansBy Pat Gowens
In December, I finally made it to New Orleans for 12 days to help stop the war on the poor. And they sure need help!

Hollywood hootersBy Heather Janssen
I kept asking myself, why this strange obsession with what Angelina Jolie does with her body, and, more specifically, her boobs? She's made a name for herself being the mother of children in dire need, and I just wanted to know if her altruistic efforts included whipping out a tit here and there to nourish her newborn.

Feminist motherhood … say what?By Michelle Levine
I usually don't even know what day of the week it is, but I can remember exactly where I was six years ago when I realized I had "gender issues." That was the phrase I settled on because I certainly did not identify myself as a feminist.

Hire the squeaky wheelBy Kelly Ault
The mother's movement has the right mix of elements to secure social change: inter-generational history, visionary organizations, charismatic leaders, ground-breaking research, compelling message, intrigued media, thoughtful commentary and most important of all, millions of people who would benefit. But to truly achieve equal rights for women in the home, workplace and community, it needs to make some serious noise.

Asking for trouble:
The truth about career women and marriageBy Judith Stadtman Tucker
In "Don't Marry Career Women," Forbes editor Michael Noer zeros in on research and economic theories implicating wives' work in the erosion of husbands' health and happiness to highlight the downside of coupling with women who expect to work full-time, earn good money and are professionally ambitious.

Don't give up:
A neo-elite manifestoBy Nandini PandyaI agree with Hirshman to the extent that I too believe that it is vital for women to stay in the workforce after they have kids. My take diverges from that of Hirshman when it comes to assigning blame to just the women who drop out.

Show Some Mommy SkinBy Sarah Werthan Buttenwieser
When BabyTalk magazine ran a cover photo of an infant latched onto a fully-exposed breast, all hell broke loose. What's interesting about this particular fracas is that we are currently in an extremely pro-breastfeeding time.

You said it, sister!Readers respond to Ann Crittenden's "The Price of Motherhood"
"I had to own that book… it has profoundly influenced my way of looking at what I do."

Sex and the Third Grade Girlby Eileen Flanagan
Teaching my daughter to know and draw her boundaries seems like one of the best things I can do as a feminist mother.

Access:
Abortion, emergency contraceptives, contraceptivesby Sarah Werthan Buttenwieser
Twenty-three years after Roe, access to abortion is constricted
in the U.S., and other legal health care -- including emergency contraception
and oral contraceptives -- is no longer universally accessible. The
confirmation of pro-life appointees to the Supreme Court may make
matters much worse.

Am
I raising feminists?by Anjali Enjeti-Sydow
Once grown and independent of my lessons and teachings, will my daughters
deny the existence of the glass ceiling and the power of the patriarchy?

Childhood
Obesity --
Would you like some hypocrisy with that?
by Staci Schoff Carsten
"It's easy for Americans to focus on childhood obesity. When
we see obese adults we have a hard time sympathizing, because we know
that no one is force-feeding people Big Macs. But with kids, we can
blame the TV, bad parenting, bad school lunches, McDonalds, advertising
-- the list goes on. We can feel sorry for kids, because it can't
be their fault so it must be someone else's. And there's no end to
the people we're willing to blame."

Playing the part: motherhood and identityby Aviva Pflock & Devra Renner "Various aspects of motherhood and identity ebb and
flow in order to meet the needs of caring for our children. But certainly
there are experiences we have as mothers that also prompt a change
in the shape of our identity."

Too
little, too late:
Katrina blows the lid off America's care crisisby Judith Stadtman Tucker
"As long as the teeming multitude of America's impoverished and
dispossessed were conveniently out of sight and out of mind, policymakers
-- and the voting public -- weren't forced to contend with the possibility
that the American Experiment might end in cataclysmic failure. Of
course, all that's changed now."

What’s in a name?by Spenta Cama
Apparently, a lot. I always knew I’d keep my surname no matter
whom I married. But going against the grain creates confusion and
can even provoke anger.

Reproductive
rights, quality of life, and economicsbyNeesha D. Meminger
The right to live
a life in relative safety, with ample food and clean water, access
to a good education and health care must also be addressed in the
debate about the right of life to exist.

The
Post-Election Talkby
Sarah Werthan ButtenwieserMy kids
still have their entire adult lives ahead and I want to fortify
them with the belief that they can help steer the world toward true
peace and democracy. So, what do I want to convey to them? What
brilliant hopes might I offer on a day that I deem so dismal?

Mr.
Yuckyby
Margaret FoleyMy
daughter has an interest in politics... Sometimes she’ll tell
me that she’d like to discuss the Bush administration. She’ll
provide her own list of its mistakes, based on what she’s been
told or heard, as filtered through the mind of a kindergartner.

There
has got to be another way
by
Neesha MemingerThe thought
of my child spending her final moments alone and full of terror is
unbearable. Yet, this is exactly what mothers in many parts of the
world are forced to endure. A choice as heinous as that of deciding
which of your children lives leaves no room for anyone to judge.What would you do?.

Why
I went to Afghanistanby Masha
HamiltonMy desire to go to Afghanistan was fueled by a longing to
know, as much as possible, what it means to be an Afghan woman today...
Occasionally I felt a jolt of fear as I prepared for the journey.
So much was unknown, and so much of the news from there was bad.

A
Season to Bleedby Lizbeth Finn-ArnoldBy offering women an alternative to monthly menstrual periods,
pharmaceutical companies “promise a pill that
will ‘liberate us,’ yet completely ignore the way this
magical pill can negatively impact our cultural perceptions of what
is normal, natural, and acceptable for women’s bodies.

Does
Gender Really Matter?bySpenta CamaWhat better
message could I send to my baby than he is a unique individual who
can do and be anything he wants irrespective of the gender constraints
society may attempt to place on him.”

Wake
Up Callby Sara
EversdenPolicies
supporting a flexible work environment may be on the increase, but
I question how frequently those policies are successfully implemented.

Once
Upon A Time, We Too Were Legitimateby Tere McDowell & Insanity House, Inc.
"We are thirteen million women raising approximately twenty million
children as single parents. We are the failed representations of womanhood
and motherhood, of American families and American society. We are
the women and mothers to be scrutinized and scorned. Questioned and
pitied for our failed lives. How did this happen?"